A gift from the gods

It took a while for the murderous intent to be carried out.

Baron Lanzkoi did not remember Judith as his new assistant.

She worked for him for a few years, gaining his trust, and then slowly gathered information about them to prepare for the crime.

The two had been meeting in a haunted hotel, where they didn’t want their affair to be discovered.

Then word came that a capitalist had bought the abandoned hotel and was preparing to open it.

Baron Lanzkoi and Viscountess Borodin rented all the other rooms under false names for their long-awaited meeting.

So when Katya and Nikolai arrived, all the rooms were booked.

Judith decided that this was the day she would exact her long-awaited revenge.

Baron Lanzkoi had entrusted everything to his assistant, including reservations, so Judith had keys to all the rooms.

Baron Lanzkoi had fallen in love with Judith by then, and his affection for Viscountess Borodin had grown cold. He traveled to the hotel with her that day, intending to see her and say goodbye.

Not expecting him to be accompanied by an assistant, the Viscountess was somewhat shocked to discover that the Baron’s assistant was her favorite student, Judith.

“After that, everything you said was true.”

Judith confessed.

“It’s just a shame I couldn’t have cut their throats with my own hands.”

“I, that ungrateful……!”

Feeling betrayed, Viscountess Borodin grabbed her by the back of the neck.

Although she considered commoners to be no better than worms, she thought Judith was quite useful, so she gave her special treatment unlike the other students, but she never expected to be stabbed in the back like this.

After watching her sulk for a while, Judith pulled something out of her pocket.

It was a birthday present from a friend, a long time ago.

She looked down at it for a moment and remembered the last words in her diary.

?As you said, I have been punished for hurting you.

I’m sorry, Judith. You were the first person to reach out to me when I was nothing. You were the only friend I had in my life.

Please don’t forgive me. I’ll pray for you in heaven.?

I wonder if the curse I put on you to be unhappy has made you this way.

“Now I want to go and see my friend too.”

Resigned to death, Judith opened the package in her hand and applied the contents to her lips.

She licked the bitter substance, but strangely, she felt no pain.

Surprised, she checked the tub again and realized it wasn’t what she had prepared.

As Judith panicked, Katya stepped forward.

“When we fell together in the hallway earlier, I sneakily switched it with the one I brought from my room.”

“…….”

“The one that paralyzed the Viscountess’s tongue was also in the tub you gave her before the meal, wasn’t it?”

Judith also knew that the Viscountess had always worn a rouge before she met Baron Lanzkoi.

As she suspected, the Viscountess had applied the balm before leaving for Baron Lanzkoi’s room after her meal. When she returned to her room later, she licked her dry lips out of habit and was poisoned.

“When I found you sleeping on the bed after the Viscountess was attacked, I felt something small and hard in your arms.”

As Katya wondered what that something could be, she realized it was soft.

At that moment, she remembered the gift Judith had given her when she reunited with the Viscountess in the hallway.

“Whether you were really sleeping or just coming down after committing a crime, it didn’t seem right that you had it with you. So I thought, why do you keep it with you at all times, no matter what.”

“…….”

“Unlike the one you gave the Viscountess, this one contained a lethal dose of poison, right?”

Katya was right.

Judith carried the poison with her, just in case.

From the beginning, she had intended to follow her friend when all the revenge was done.

“The laws of this country should have delivered proper judgment to the sinners, but failing to do so, they have left blood on your hands.”

Katya felt a great responsibility as Grand Duchess.

No life is without complaints, and everyone tends to perceive their own wounds as the most significant. But they had never realized before that even hardships have their own lessons.

She hadn’t realized that other students in her school had been through the same thing.

The difficulties I’ve experienced so far seem like mere trifles compared to the long-standing discrimination and oppression endured by common people.

“Why do you have to die when people as bad as these scum live? And don’t you think being put to death so painlessly is too lenient a punishment for the crimes committed? They should receive proper retribution. I’ll help you with that.”

Tears burst from Judith’s eyes at the soothing words.

Viscountess Borodin was furious that she had called scum.

“Hey! What on earth did I do to deserve such punishment, huh? Who do you think you are, acting like this?”

“Do you really not know who I am?”

“Why should I know who you are? It’s obvious from the fact that you’re honeymooning in a backward place like this. You’re a lowly, lowly commoner who’s been dreaming of coming here all your life.”

“I don’t care if you’re lowly by the standards of lowliness, but since you’re invoking the class system, I’ll give you what you want.”

Katya suddenly nudged Viscountess Borodin with her foot.

Her legs folded under her in the unexpected surprise, and she was unintentionally forced into a kneeling, prone position.

Katya was determined to teach the hobbling girl a lesson in proper etiquette just because she was a boyanin.

“How dare you kick me?”

As the woman struggled to her feet, Katya picked up the broom next to her, held it upside down, and slammed it down on her shoulder.

“Aaah!”

“Uh-huh, where are you standing? Why are you not in the right position?”

“I won’t let you!”

BAM! The broom sliced through the air and landed hard on the trainee’s flesh.

“Bend at the waist.”

BAM!

“Hands respectfully clasped together and on the floor.”

BAM!

Katya pointed and corrected her posture, slapping her where she deviated from the rules.

Viscountess Borodin, who had been writhing in discomfort, had a moment of clarity.

These were the words and actions she had used against her commoner students.

And this posture–

“When making your first appearance in front of the monarch and the monarch’s consort, you should be as low as possible.”

“Wh-what did you just say……?”

Viscountess Borodin doubted her ears and looked up into the face of the woman kneeling before her.

It was a familiar face.

Forest-blue eyes, dark arched eyebrows that looked stubborn, and lips that seemed to be full of mischief at the corners.

“Ka, Katarina?”

At that moment, Nikolai walked in front of her.

Or rather, he stood beside her.

“Don’t you recognize me?”

His hair dye had been washed off by the rain earlier in the day, but now that she was standing under the light in the center of the room, it was clear.

His silver hair glistened in the light, his cold face, and the words Katya had spoken just moments before. The stunned viscountess dropped to the floor in worship.

“I-I am guilty of death, Grand Duke!”

She had never seen the Grand Duke of Blood in person, as her radius of operations was limited to the south, but she fit the description she had heard from others.

Those who had seen him were united in saying that he was a marvel of beauty and fear.

As she greeted Nikolai, she could see what they meant.

She had dismissed him as a commoner and paid him no attention, but now she could see his face for the first time.

And since Katya had called herself the monarch’s wife, did that mean they were married?

But that wasn’t what mattered now.

The Grand Duke of Blood had said that if he didn’t like something, he’d kill them all rather than correct them.

That meant that if she dared to treat him like a lowly commoner, her life was in danger.

“Why would you say such a hurtful thing like ‘you deserve to die’? I have you to thank for giving me a reason to return the Molniski Ladies’ Academy to the state.”

“Yes, yes?”

“I came down here wondering why, as the years went by, donations poured into the Molniski Ladies’ Academy, while the number of commoner enrollments dwindled. It’s bad enough that you laundered noblemen’s money in the name of donations, but how dare you do such filthy things to students?”

Nikolai slammed the sword he was holding to the floor with a murderous glare.

It was sheathed, but the mere sight of it made Viscountess Borodin shudder as if it would rip her throat out.

“You call my people lowly, and as if that weren’t enough, you insult me and my wife. I will punish you for each and every one of your sins. I would have preferred that you had been killed by my own hand today.”

“Now, I’ve done wrong, Your Highness! Please, please forgive me just this once. I will never do it again.”

“I am inclined to believe that remorse that comes only in the face of punishment is not genuine.”

Viscountess Borodin’s wailing echoed through the room.

Judith stared at her saviors before her in disbelief.

No one, not even the gods, had heard her cries of persecution and pain.

The twins of the seven gods, Mishpat, the god of justice, and Tzedakah, the god of judgment, would not condemn these monsters.¹to add: tzedakah and mishpat are two important concepts in Judaism related to acts of charity and justice; both concepts promote a sense of responsibility towards others and strive for a more compassionate and equitable society.

So I had no choice but to get blood on my hands.

With everything exposed, I thought my revenge had failed.

But it was not to be.

Their eyes met, and the Grand Duchess smiled slowly at her.

Someone once said.

The seven gods in the sky can’t touch everyone’s heart, so they send leaders to places they can’t reach.

Judith realized that they were gifts from the gods.

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  to add: tzedakah and mishpat are two important concepts in Judaism related to acts of charity and justice; both concepts promote a sense of responsibility towards others and strive for a more compassionate and equitable society.